"The House Bunny" Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith

The House Bunny, starring Anna Faris, about a Playboy bunny who is kicked out of the Mansion and becomes housemother to a sorority of misfits, hopped into theaters just last month. The movie is the latest in a successful string of films featuring strong women, written by the team of Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, and the upcoming The Ugly Truth, starring Katherine Heigl).

“We love these kinds of movies,” Smith says. “We love chick flicks. We’re bigger fans of the genre than anybody. We just so passionately connect with it.”

The House Bunny was an original idea they wrote on spec.

“We had seen Anna Faris be funny in several movies and decided she was the next comedic female movie star,” Lutz explains. “We met with her, and she told us the idea that she had for the character — a Playboy Bunny who gets kicked out. So then we went off and cooked the story. Then all three of us went around town and pitched it.”

”We really empowered each other,” Smith adds. “It was great.”

“We like fish out of water stories; underdog movies,” Smith says. “We are drawn to those characters that have a real strong sense of themselves but are underestimated by the people around them. And that provides for a lot of comedy, and also a lot of heart.”

Whether you call them “chick flicks” or “romantic comedies,” the main ingredient in the genre is conflict.

”In a romantic comedy,” Lutz says, “you have to have a reason why they stay apart until the end.”

”Conflict is actually one of the crucial things in a romantic comedy,” Smith elaborates, “because that’s where all the sparks come from, all those great fights that we love to watch in romantic comedies.”

Lutz and Smith, who have been writing together for about 12 years, got together in a way befitting a movie. The team met when Lutz — who was living in Denver — sent Smith — who was working at an independent production company in Los Angeles — a query letter.

“Yes,” Smith says, “query letters do work. I read hers, and I asked to read one of her scripts.

”Her scripts were great,” she continues. “We started talking on the phone. And then Karen came out to LA, we met for drinks, and started writing a script together that night, kind of inadvertently.

”She was telling me about an idea she had, and we just started like casting it in our heads. And so it began.”

That spec didn’t sell, but it solidified their desire to continue writing together, albeit long distance. 10 Things I Hate About You and a third script — a low-budget feature they were hired to write — were also written when the team lived in different states.

“We wrote on the phone and through Airborne and faxing,” Lutz recalls. “It was before Kirsten had email, so it was very primitive.”

”We took a trip together to Mexico to outline 10 Things I Hate About You," Smith adds. “We were there for about a week, so that gave us the together-time we needed to break the story.”

When 10 Things sold, the team started taking meetings — Lutz would fly out. When they got staffed on a television show, Lutz made the move to Los Angeles.

”Ever since then, we’ve had the pleasure of writing in the same city together, which has been great,” Smith says.

Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon, was clearly the team’s breakout hit. It was a project they wrote on assignment.

”The producer had optioned a novel,” Smith recalls. “And he was meeting with us and different writers to do the adaptation. And fortunately we just hung in there.”

They met with the producer five or six times. He weeded the other writers out, and just went with Lutz and Smith when he pitched to the studio.

“I think we were both so excited about it,’ Smith adds. “We just loved the movie and saw the potential of it, so it was pretty great.”

People who write together have different techniques, and Smith and Lutz’s technique has changed over the years.

“At this point we complrment each other,” Lutz says. “In the beginning Kirsten was stronger at structure and I was stronger at dialogue. And now we are equally strong in all areas."

And the process?

“First, we have the premise, and then we figure out the character, and then we figure out the end of the first act and the midpoint and the end of the second act,” Lutz explains. “And then we go back to the beginning and fill it out from there.”

Lutz and Smith keep daily writing hours — 2 pm to 7 pm. And they also support each other’s individual projects.

“Kirsten’s has a solo producing side-gig,” Lutz explains, “and I have a couple solo scripts I have written and I’m going to produce.”

”We’ve had a long partnership, and we’ve been blessed with success,” Smith says. “One of the things that’s been important to maintaining a good creative relationship is allowing each other to have the freedom to do things on our own, as well.

“I think that’s probably something that we are both really proud of is that we’ve been able to do that and still maintain a real love of working together.”

”Timing-wise it’s worked out so well, too,” Lutz adds. “Kirsten directed a short and that pretty much consumed her for a month, and it just so happened to be the month that The Ugly Truth was shooting.

“I love being on set every day, and Kirsten doesn’t love it quite as much as I do, so it was very handy. I got to go and be on set and do all the stuff I love to do and she was off directing.”

Lutz and Smith manage to do what they love, together and separately. And are a great model for a working partnership. Plus, in addition to screenwriting, Smith and Lutz have each written a novel, and are each working on their second.

“Writing books takes a lot longer than writing screenplays,” Lutz laughs, “because you have to go all the way across the page.”